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Inherited collection of Silver Age comics...
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48 posts in this topic

7 hours ago, Cherami said:

Typical "I suddenly have a large collection of comics and no idea what I'm doing" post.

Plan is to sell them.. Silver Age-modern day.  I've been cataloguing all of them as I go through them. Started with the 10/12 cent-ers and am now moving onto the 15+ cent bunch.  In no big rush to sell, hoping to maximize value, so I've been trying to give myself a crash course in the last few weeks.

Biggest challenge: getting a handle on grading, and deciding which may be worth sending to get graded. I've been doing research and making spreadsheets of for sale/sold listings on Ebay, Heritage, Comic Link, Comic Connect, and a few others sites... which is of limited value without being able to assess the grade of what I have.  I've already submitted 3 (Showcase #22, Avengers #4, and Flash #105) in the "Hey, Buddy..." forum, and appreciate the quick responses. I'm not sure what the time frame for submitting 3 more is, but I have many more to goB|. I've been trying to study the other threads in there, but it's a lot to try to cram into my head this quickly!  

There are well over 2,000 Silver Age titles alone: Showcase, Action, Adventure, Detective, Brave and the Bold, Justice League, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Green Lantern, Spider-man, Batman, Superman, Daredevil, Incredible Hulk, Journey into Mystery, My Greatest Adventure, Mystery in Space, Strange Adventures, Tales of Suspense, World's Finest, X-Men, etc....  

I've learned local shops are not the way to go unless you want to get seriously lowballed, though I did manage to get one to give grades on a few I brought with me, no clue if they're accurate). Another place flat out said they offered 30% of retail, which seems to be pretty standard among the few places I had visited/contacted, so I appreciate her honesty there xD 

Plan is: pick a few I was most sure would be worth getting graded, when those come back send in a second batch.  Trying to keep expectations re: grades and prices those grades will bring realistic and accurate. The information on these forums has been the most helpful of everything so far.  

At this point, is there any reason to visit more of these shops in person if I'm not in a rush and there are better ways to sell them for more, even if they're slower and more labor intensive?

Should I bother contacting any of these places like "Sell My Comic Books" or "My Comic Shop"? If so, send the full list of what I have with some scans, or pick out a certain number of the more interesting ones? 

Any suggestions for cramming grading knowledge in my head as fast as possible, besides reading the "Hey Buddy..." forum?

Sorry for the long post, this is all super new to me and I have a lot to learn!

Thanks!

This might be the best-presenting "Newbie" post that I have read around here. Kudos for that!

I would say no re: the bolded. If you are in no rush, and want maximum value, it certainly will not benefit you to continue visiting these shops.

It looks like you have some very valuable (and desired) stuff - so places like MCS are not out of the question. They simply charge a fee to take care of the process. Auction houses can be attractive because they will handle any potential scams (not sure if MCS does?)

As far as understanding the grading process... It's a long road. You can buy Overstreet Price Guides, but I have not personally done that, and I would consider myself a decent amateur grader. I spent about a year lurking the PGM forum and learning what others think certain flaws do to impact a comic's perceived condition. It's a tricky art. I also read countless sites about comic grading.

As for the PGM sub-forum; You can post 3 comic books per day. Continue to do so at your leisure!

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Agree, good post.

Books like the ones you're posting should be graded regardless of the grade, provided they're complete, to maximize their sell price.  Raw, you'll need an excellent reputation and pinpoint accurate grading skills, which take years to learn, and decades to perfect.

Stores wont often have the capital to sink into big books unless it's at a steal.  Unless you see similar books hanging on their walls, they may not know how to handle big books, and probably havent developed that kind of clientele to spend more than $20 on a funny book.  They should at least offer to sell the books on consignment, although it's still not the best deal for you.  You can use them to screen a box of low value books for hot books if you let them pull individual issues, but you dont want to sell to them.

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First let me say...Sorry for your loss whomever it was you inherited the collection from.

Secondly all I can say is WOW!!!  :whatthe:

That is one heck of a collection!!!   :applause::cloud9:

And in case you have not already found this...https://comics.ha.com/tutorial/comics-grading.s?show=comicdefinitions

There are no pics like the Overstreet Grading Guide but I use this grading tutorial all the time.

Good Luck!!! (thumbsu

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pretty much what all the other posters have said, Overstreet good guide to help. you might also want to get familiar with pressing and cleaning if you want to maximize profits when submitting to third party grading like CGC, it could be the difference on a missed couple hundred, etc.. specially since you have some very desirable and great books. 

Also sorry for your loss, the person who you got this collection from had a great collection and I am sure some great memories and fun. 

Welcome to the boards and best of luck. 

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Overstreet speaks in two distinct ways. The first is in the price guide and it's easy ( I did) to feel your comics are in better shape gradewise than they really are. The other is his book on how to grade a comic and it's far more realistic about grade.  

Your books shown have serious value and you don't say how they are stored. Are they on backerboards in high quality bags. That should be the first order of business if everything is not getting slabbed and graded. There are collections like this that were simply stacked in Boxes over decades ( Mine were). It exposed a lot of the books to changes in the page quality and in some cases it hurt value a lot. 

 

Read the Kudos section, see who comes well recommended. I did that and wound up with Bob Storms who handled the entire collection. He bought most but some like the AF15 were consigned. He charged 7.75% on the consigned sales. 

I don't care for auction houses as they get paid regardless of what your book sells for. Storms got paid and I got paid when the book sold at Storm's price. 

Selling the books one at a time is an arduous process and you well may tire of it quicker than you might think . I had about 950 books and for me, it was better to sell and get on with life which won't be that much longer. 

It is certainly a fine collection based on your examples. Based on what you show, you could evaluate them all based around a 5.0 and up from what I see. Stains, creases, tears, marking, ragged corners, bad wraps, tears on the spine side all bring value down. Books above 7.0 in the old stuff aren't very common.  Consider subscribing to GPA. It lists sales prices from selected sources. It's not at all complete but it's pretty helpful.  Do take note that Key issues have far higher values than the standard run.  Overstreet makes Keys pretty obvious.  Based on the spread between things like the .10 cent flash and the FF48, it encompasses a sizable number of years. 

Slabbing a book defines the value for many collectors. Pressing a comic is usually worthwhile prior to slabbing. It often improves the grade.  Money money money...

I love your old Flash and JLA.  Have some fun with  it. 

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Thank you for the response! 
 

These comics had been sitting in stacks for decades until very recently. I’ve begun the process of bagging/boarding the more valuable ones, but need to reorder supplies. Some of the older ones like Action Comics 242/252 don’t seem to fit into the Silver Age stuff, they appear to be a bit too wide? Is there an alternative? Also need to find something that fits the annuals etc. 
 

I have seen Bob’s name in the forums as well and have checked out his website. It’s at the top of my list. I was planning on trying to do the most important ones individually (or however made sense to maximize value), and then possibly selling the rest of them possibly in bulk. Just trying to gauge what the cut off for what I consider the important/valuable ones and come up with a list so I can get necessary scans/images of all of those first. 
 

If the issues with the comics are pretty similar to the ones I’ve posted... do I plan on pressing every one I get graded? Are there any situations in which I should not plan on pressing them?
 

I’ve done a decent amount of research that I’ve put into spreadsheets in the last few weeks and I think I have a pretty solid idea of which ones are the “keys”. Right now I have them all sorted by title in numerical order. Am I better off pulling out all the keys and submitting those to someone like Bob as a group, or is it better to sell runs of the same title?

 

The grading is really the tricky part, because it definitely seems like something that just takes practice and experience, which comes with time. You guys definitely notice things that I don’t, and the order you prioritize them in is interesting. People posting their official CGC grades on the “Hey Buddy...” forum is extremely helpful, and I’ll be sure to add mine whenever I receive them in case it helps anyone else.  
 

Thank you for your help!

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7 hours ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

This might be the best-presenting "Newbie" post that I have read around here. Kudos for that!

I would say no re: the bolded. If you are in no rush, and want maximum value, it certainly will not benefit you to continue visiting these shops.

It looks like you have some very valuable (and desired) stuff - so places like MCS are not out of the question. They simply charge a fee to take care of the process. Auction houses can be attractive because they will handle any potential scams (not sure if MCS does?)

As far as understanding the grading process... It's a long road. You can buy Overstreet Price Guides, but I have not personally done that, and I would consider myself a decent amateur grader. I spent about a year lurking the PGM forum and learning what others think certain flaws do to impact a comic's perceived condition. It's a tricky art. I also read countless sites about comic grading.

As for the PGM sub-forum; You can post 3 comic books per day. Continue to do so at your leisure!

I’m flattered 😂 I’ve put a disturbing amount of time into organizing the collection and learning about the comic world and how this works in the last few weeks. I wanted to see how far I could get figuring some of it out for myself and learning which questions required help/experience to answer. Quite a feat for someone to have amassed such a collection over a lifetime, and I wanted to try to do it justice, not dump it quickly for a few bucks from a slimeball looking to take advantage of someone who doesn’t know enough to know what they have. 
 

I’ve spent a few weeks lurking in the PGM forums and learned... that it’s going to take me quite awhile to gain any sort of proficiency at it 😂 What you said about learning how others think certain flaws affect a comic’s perceived value is dead on what I find the most difficult and interesting part. 
 

Thank you for your response! 

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7 minutes ago, Cherami said:

Thank you for the response! 
 

These comics had been sitting in stacks for decades until very recently. I’ve begun the process of bagging/boarding the more valuable ones, but need to reorder supplies. Some of the older ones like Action Comics 242/252 don’t seem to fit into the Silver Age stuff, they appear to be a bit too wide? Is there an alternative? Also need to find something that fits the annuals etc. 
 


 

If the issues with the comics are pretty similar to the ones I’ve posted... do I plan on pressing every one I get graded? Are there any situations in which I should not plan on pressing them?
 

 

as to my comments int eh PGM forum since most of your books seem to have sun/dust shadow I believe that can't be removed without restoration processes and you dont want to do that for selling purposes as most prefer unrestore (blue) label books. I would get in contact with a pro/presor and see what they say about the condition of the books and what defects can be improved. 

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6 hours ago, FineCollector said:

Agree, good post.

Books like the ones you're posting should be graded regardless of the grade, provided they're complete, to maximize their sell price.  Raw, you'll need an excellent reputation and pinpoint accurate grading skills, which take years to learn, and decades to perfect.

Stores wont often have the capital to sink into big books unless it's at a steal.  Unless you see similar books hanging on their walls, they may not know how to handle big books, and probably havent developed that kind of clientele to spend more than $20 on a funny book.  They should at least offer to sell the books on consignment, although it's still not the best deal for you.  You can use them to screen a box of low value books for hot books if you let them pull individual issues, but you dont want to sell to them.

Thank you for your response, that’s extremely helpful advice and makes sense. 

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5 hours ago, marvelmaniac said:

First let me say...Sorry for your loss whomever it was you inherited the collection from.

Secondly all I can say is WOW!!!  :whatthe:

That is one heck of a collection!!!   :applause::cloud9:

And in case you have not already found this...https://comics.ha.com/tutorial/comics-grading.s?show=comicdefinitions

There are no pics like the Overstreet Grading Guide but I use this grading tutorial all the time.

Good Luck!!! (thumbsu

Thank you very much. It’s quite the collection that reflects a lifetime of passion and dedication from a comic fanatic that I think I’m just beginning to appreciate over the past few weeks! 

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5 hours ago, Krismusic said:

pretty much what all the other posters have said, Overstreet good guide to help. you might also want to get familiar with pressing and cleaning if you want to maximize profits when submitting to third party grading like CGC, it could be the difference on a missed couple hundred, etc.. specially since you have some very desirable and great books. 

Also sorry for your loss, the person who you got this collection from had a great collection and I am sure some great memories and fun. 

Welcome to the boards and best of luck. 

Thank you very much. Good advice re: pressing/cleaning. It’s something I’m just starting to look into, as I didn’t realize how important or widely done it was. 

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2 hours ago, Cherami said:

Thank you very much. Good advice re: pressing/cleaning. It’s something I’m just starting to look into, as I didn’t realize how important or widely done it was. 

Circular argument. "Since it's so widely done, It's important."

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1 hour ago, Glassman10 said:

Circular argument. "Since it's so widely done, It's important."

Only if you assume causation. I was simply stating that this world is so new to me that I was aware of neither the availability of cleaning/pressing services nor the effect cleaning/pressing may have on certain comics grades and, therefore, values.

I’m in comic collecting kindergarten. I don’t know enough about anything to argue either way 😂 I’m here to learn and appreciate any advice or insights anyone might be willing to share.

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10 hours ago, Cherami said:

These comics had been sitting in stacks for decades until very recently. I’ve begun the process of bagging/boarding the more valuable ones, but need to reorder supplies. Some of the older ones like Action Comics 242/252 don’t seem to fit into the Silver Age stuff, they appear to be a bit too wide? Is there an alternative? Also need to find something that fits the annuals etc. 

Yep, if they're too tight just order a little bigger size. Places like Bags Unlimited, Bill Cole and E. Gerber offer many different bags and boards that will fit just about anything. There's a wide range of prices, sizes and thicknesses...take some time and look around for the best deal for what you need. 

And I'm sorry for your loss...but from what I've seen, you've inherited a nice looking collection... 

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4 hours ago, Beige said:

You no doubt have recieved lots of private messages from people offering to help.

 

My advice would be to choose a respected dealer who is active on here and is close enough to wherever you live to remain involved in the selling process. After you choose said person, let them guide you.

 

If I were you I would expect that person to tell you:

 

1) Which books should go to CGC and on to auction (not ebay) and how to obtain the best selling price (pressing, private contacts,want to buy lists from clients)

2) Which books should go to CGC and the dealer would sell them on consignment for you (and retain a %) - and where they will sell them (own website, conventions, ebay)

3) Which books are not worth grading and you should seek a buyer to purchase them all in bulk. Prepare yourself that a significant % of your books are filler and could possibly be worth only a couple of $$ each. Unless you want to ebay them yourself, take a bulk offer to save the hassle. The dealer might even do that, especially if you consign some nice books with a fair commission % to them.

 

That should optimise the value of the 'major keys', provide the dealer incentive to sell your minor keys, and rid you of the rest in one transaction.

 

You just need to find the right dealer. Most will do the very best for you, one or two will seek to exploit your lack of knowledge - if I were you, I would ignore the Private Messages, the number of posts people have made, and spend some time in the selling section of the boards to see who consistently sells books quickly without frequent % drops. Those who consistently sell quickly do so because the price fairly and have a great reputation.

 

Choose your own path, and choose it wisely and slowly.

You have plenty of time, and no need to rush to a decision, so send your list to a couple of dealers, see who you feel comfortable with, and go from there. I would not consider an offer for all the books in one hit, but would divide them as suggested above.

 

Good luck, and sorry you got these books in tragic circumstances. :foryou:

 

 

Wonderful advice, thank you. Kind of what I had in mind in terms of picking out the valuable ones and getting rid of the cheapos.
 

Now all I have to do is find someone I trust amongst a bunch of people telling me not to trust anyone 😂

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3 hours ago, The Lions Den said:

Yep, if they're too tight just order a little bigger size. Places like Bags Unlimited, Bill Cole and E. Gerber offer many different bags and boards that will fit just about anything. There's a wide range of prices, sizes and thicknesses...take some time and look around for the best deal for what you need. 

And I'm sorry for your loss...but from what I've seen, you've inherited a nice looking collection... 

Awesome, thank you! 

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14 hours ago, Cherami said:

I’m in comic collecting kindergarten. I don’t know enough about anything to argue either way 😂 I’m here to learn and appreciate any advice or insights anyone might be willing to share.

With your attitude and enthusiasm, you'll be in first grade in no time...  (thumbsu

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